With "steel in their spines" Michigan travels to East Lansing to take on Michigan State

Michigan punter Blake O'Neill in one of his better moments during last year's Michigan-Michigan State game.

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Last year, football fans witnessed the Mother of all Michigan-Michigan State games. For the first time in years, both teams were ranked, revved up, and ready to go.

The Spartans moved the ball much better than the Wolverines, but still trailed Michigan until the last play of the game.

How was that possible?

Because Michigan’s fantastic punter, an Australian named Blake O’Neill, was having the game of his life, pinning the Spartans deep in their own end, time and again.

With 10 seconds left, Michigan held a 23-21 lead, and needed only to punt the ball downfield to win.

And that set up one of the strangest plays in the history of college football.

O’Neill dropped the snap, picked up the ball, then tried to kick it, but inadvertently knocked it into the hands of Michigan State’s Jalen Watts-Jackson, who ran into the endzone to seal the craziest victory in Big Ten history.

A minute later, Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh had to stand in the middle of the locker room, and address his team. There could be no script for what he would say.

"This will put steel in our spines."

“It’s kind of a fluke,” he told them. “But that’s football. These things happen, and that’s why you play the full 60 minutes. This will put steel in our spines.”

Months later, Michigan tight end Jake Butt – no, I’m not making that up -- told me the memory of that moment still chokes him up, especially the way Harbaugh looked them in the eyes when he said it.

He had them.

When Harbaugh finished, he found O’Neill to make sure he was okay.

O’Neill asked him, in his Aussie accent, “Do you think I’ll take some flak for this?”

Harbaugh couldn’t help but grin, and reply with his own Australian accent.

“Yeah, mate, I think you’re gonna take some flak for this. But you’ll be okay. Don’t listen to it. All will be well.”

O'Neill figured if they could joke about it, it couldn't be that bad.

O’Neill figured if they could joke about it, it couldn’t be that bad.

From that moment, Harbaugh told me, he had one goal: to make sure his team handled that loss better than any team ever could, and emerge more unified and determined than before the game.

But getting back on the winning track would be no small trick.

Historically, the team that loses the Michigan-Michigan State game goes into a tailspin. This is why coaches always warn each other, “Never let ‘em beat you twice.”

In other words, don’t spend so much time agonizing over a tough loss that you fail to prepare for the next game, and lose again.

That was Michigan’s challenge. Instead of basking in a long-awaited win over their rival, a likely top ten ranking, and a shot at a national title, they had to spend the following week trying not to think of the last game.

“We didn’t dwell on it,” Butt said, “but we all wanted to get out there! We wanted to make someone pay!”

They came from behind to beat Minnesota, then did it again two weeks later against Indiana. In fact, since Michigan’s loss to Michigan State a year ago, the Wolverines have won 12 games, and lost just one.

You’d have to say Harbaugh was right: That bizarre loss to Michigan State put steel in their spines, and prepared them for revenge this weekend.

Whether or not they get it, against a struggling Spartan team just as eager to salvage their season, is impossible to predict.

A few years ago I had the chance to work out with the Michigan football team, for a six solid weeks. I lifted more weights than I any writer should, followed by an ungodly number of sit-ups, pushups and pull-downs.

Just 15 minutes into my first work out, I was sweating like a pig, and panting like a dog. You could have taken my pulse by touching my hair.

It wasn’t long before I was running to the trashcan to get rid of my breakfast.

It was a full weekend of sports across the state of Michigan, headlined by the Wolverines and the Spartans hosting games in their respective home stadiums. Michigan, which remains ranked No. 4 in the nation, flexed its muscles with a 49-10 blowout of Penn State. Meanwhile, in East Lansing, it was a battle between two Big Ten teams ranked in the top ten. However, Michigan State suffered a rare one-sided loss, 30-6, to the Wisconsin Badgers.

Some players have opted out citing the need for rest after a grueling NBA season. Others have said they might not participate because of concerns regarding the Zika virus. But Draymond Green, the Saginaw native, former Michigan State basketball standout, and current Golden State Warriors power forward, will represent the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

INDIANAPOLIS - L.J. Scott kept lunging forward, stretching the ball over the goal line for a touchdown with 27 seconds and No. 5 Michigan State all but locked up a spot in the College Football Playoff, edging No. 4 Iowa 16-13 Saturday in the Big Ten championship game.

Connor Cook led the Spartans (12-1) on a 22-play drive that set up Scott's 1-yard run. A half-dozen Iowa defenders tried to stop Scott, but he wouldn't be denied.

HBO’s “Real Sports” ran a feature last week on the arms race in college sports. It questioned why Eastern Michigan University still spends so much money to compete in Division I football. Michigan Radio sports commentator John U Bacon has been asking the same question for a decade.

The first season after P.J. Fleck was hired to be the head football coach at Western Michigan University in 2012, the Broncos finished with a 1-11 record.

But four years into his tenure, Fleck has successfully turned the ship around.

The Broncos are a perfect 6-0 in the 2016 season so far, and are listed 24th in the latest Associated Press college football rankings. It’s the first time in the program's history that the Broncos are ranked among the nation’s best teams.